Foster Home Request Goes To City Board Proposal For Elderly Also Must Have State Approval

October 1, 1985|By Kirsten Gallagher of The Sentinel

WINTER SPRINGS — Myrtha Hurtado has a dream. She wants to convert her four-bedroom house to a foster home for the elderly. Not only does she want to make money from it to help her children through college, but she loves the elderly, she said.

Before she can do that, however, she will have to get approval from the city's Board of Adjustment, and at least one neighbor vows to object.

''This is a single-family neighborhood and should be kept that way,'' said one neighbor, who asked not to be identified, explaining she is afraid the street will be congested by visitors' cars. Several other neighbors expressed no opposition to the home.

The board will consider the application Thursday and City Planner Peter Cowell said that if the house's proposed use benefits the community and does no damage to the neighborhood, a special exception would be in order. Should the exception be granted, however, Hurtado would still face one other hurdle -- approval from the state's Health and Rehabilitative Services must be cleared through an HRS Jacksonville office.

A city permit does not guarantee an HRS operating license, said Barbara Wavell, HRS adult foster home licensing representative.

Wavell said she has discouraged Hurtado from seeking the license because she failed to mention an income source other than from the proposed congregate home operation.

Wavell said most foster home owners have incomes from sources other than their clients. She said that Hurtado, who worked for 12 years at Stromberg- Carlson in Longwood, may have enough money to start the business but has not identified any in her query.

Hurtado, who has periodically worked with the elderly in a friend's foster home, said she applied to the HRS state office for a license to house

more than three people.

In order to process Hurtado's Sept. 11 application for a license, she needs to submit further financial data, said George Vangeloff, HRS program manager for adult congregate living facilities. He said no medical experience is required to board and provide personal services for the elderly.

Hurtado, 41, said she would house as few as two people, and if permitted to house more than five, would hire a medically trained assistant. If she does not receive a permit from the city, Hurtado said that she will rent a house in a commercially zoned area for her venture.